The McLean Project for the Arts (MPA) still will need to raise the bulk of funds necessary to make its planned second facility in McLean a reality, but the arts group now will benefit from $500,000 in Fairfax County government funding.
The Board of Supervisors won Sept. 24 unanimously supported providing those funds from the county’s Economic Opportunity Reserve.
MPA leaders in September are expected to close on the purchase of 5,000 square feet of vacant retail space and a 1,700-square-foot outdoor patio area at The Signet, a residential building located at 6910 Fleetwood Road in downtown McLean. The county will provide its donation after the deal has been consummated.
MPA hopes to start construction of the McLean Project for the Arts Downtown Arts and Education Center there this November.
Founded in 1962, the nonprofit arts group primarily has been based out of the McLean Community Center since 1990.
The retail condominium at The Signet was delivered in 2018 and has been vacant ever since.
The planned MPA Arts & Education Center would have exhibition and installation galleries, teaching space, a ceramics studio, staff offices, a café and retail area vending gifts, artwork and supplies. MPA would coordinate with the McLean Revitalization Corp., Fairfax County Park Authority, Fairfax County Department of Planning and Development, and other community partners to provide place-making, programming and community engagement.
The project overall cost of $7.2 million includes $2.3 million for real-estate acquisition, $3.3 million for renovation expenses, $370,000 for equipment and $1.25 million for other expenses.
MPA, which also will maintain its presence at the McLean Community Center, has raised more than $1,825,000 toward the Arts & Education Center project.
Rand Construction Corp. will serve as general contractor for the initiative, which MPA leaders hope will be finished by July or August 2025.
County officials created the Economic Opportunity Reserve in 2016 and supervisors must nominate projects to be funded from it.
Supervisors in April 2020 revised the Economic Opportunity Reserve’s investment principles to make donations from the fund one-time expenditures that occurred outside the typical funding process. The donations also must impose no liability on the county and be used for capital investment, property acquisition and programming, or to mitigate pandemic impacts.
Among the economic impacts the county expects to receive from MPA’s facility are increased real-estate-tax revenue from the property, the creation of three to five new jobs and the removal of vacant space along an important pedestrian corridor.
Staff with the county’s Department of Economic Initiatives will monitor the donation’s return on investment and report those results annually to the Board of Supervisors.
Officials told supervisors at a July committee meeting that the MPA initiative likely would result in $150,000 to $300,000 in direct revenue to the county over a 10-year period.
At that same meeting, Supervisor Walter Alcorn (D-Hunter Mill) warned against long-term commercial vacancies.
“If you have an office building that’s vacant for six months, that’s a problem for the owner,” Alcorn said at the time. “But if you have a vacant office building for six years, that’s a community problem.”
County officials expect the project to increase the vibrancy of central McLean and encourage investment in additional commercial and residential projects there.
“This could be a real catalyst in downtown McLean,” said Supervisor Jimmy Bierman (D-Dranesville), who concurred with Alcorn’s earlier remarks.
